"Our tribe two years ago purchased a small portion of our ancestral land in the valley for homes for tribal families. You may have read in the news about these plans for the Camp 4 property, including a just-released report detailing how the construction of the homes will create hundreds of jobs and boost the local economy.

This land will be a place where we grow our future generations. But today I want to tell you about something else that is growing on part of the property — 256 acres of the 1,400 acres of Camp 4 is covered with wine grapes and the associated vineyard buildings. The late Fess Parker started the vineyard.

You may have seen the “Camp 4” name on bottles from various Central Coast wineries. The name is there because some of the finest grapes in the area are grown on the property.

We plan to continue that tradition even after homes for our families are built. In fact, we plan to add to that tradition by beginning to use some of the grapes to begin producing our own wine."

Get the Story:
Richard Gomez: Tribe to make its own wine from Camp 4 (The Solvang Valley News 4/26)

Related Stories:
Opinion: Chumash report ignores land-into-trust issues (4/20)
Chumash Tribe cites economic benefits of land-into-trust (4/11)
Opinion: Putting an end to land-into-trust for wealthy tribes (03/29)
Richard Gomez: Chumash Tribe needs more land for housing (3/1)
Opinion: Land-into-trust wasn't intended for 'wealthy' tribes (1/19)
Opinion: A lack of leadership over Chumash Tribe land-into-trust (1/5)